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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25423348">The Curse of Strahd: The Curse Brand</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Notsalony/pseuds/Notsalony'>Notsalony</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Curse of Strahd - Fandom, Dungeons &amp; Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Dungeons &amp; Dragons - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>5e, Blood Play, Body Modification, D&amp;D, Feeding Circle, M/M, Magic, Mind Control, Multi, Other, Power Play, Seduction, Sex Magic, Sexual Feeding, Transformation, Vampire Sex, Vampires, dnd, dub con, magic sex, memory play, non con, strahd - Freeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 05:27:15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply, Rape/Non-Con</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>11,531</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25423348</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Notsalony/pseuds/Notsalony</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>In a dark and terrible land, a vampire lord once again awakens and sends out the call to see who will answer his summons.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>OMC/OMC, OMC/OMC/OMC, OMC/OMC/OMC/OMC</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>19</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Send forth the invitations</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>11 requested a little D&amp;D so here we go.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Dust slowly rained down in a silent tomb of long forgotten treasures tarnished with time and age.  Gold long since robbed of its luster now buried under inches of dust and detritus, nothing living had stepped foot in this place in significant eras.  Silence ruling a dead kingdom and the stillness of the grave, all consuming in its domain had long ago conquered this place. <br/><br/><em>Thump</em> <br/><br/>The dust seemed to freeze in the air, everything hanging caught between moments as a sound not heard in these walls in far too long began to spill from an unassuming wooden crate in the back of the chamber. <br/><br/><em>Thump Thump</em> <br/><br/>A queer dark light began to spill from the cracks in the walls, pooling around the box.  Black on black runes began to bleed out of the wood as it drank in the darkness given to it.  And eerie amber and violet colored light began to pulse behind the boards, casting shadows that ran back into the wood and giving everything an unearthly glow. <br/><br/><em>Thump Thump Thump</em> <br/><br/>The light was burning like a mini sun contained only by the blackened shadow wood of the box that had dark archaic runes all over it.  Life or something not too dissimilar was returning to whatever was within in the box.  And then the light was gone.  The shadows melting back to normal tame darkness before the world seemed to finally exhale, the danger seemingly averted. <br/><br/><strong><em>BWOOSH</em></strong> <br/><br/>The box exploded, raining down debris and splinters in every part of the dank dark dungeon as a naked man crouched, his body pale like fresh cream as he panted.  The darkness clung around him like a cloak but his nudity seemed somehow both profane and blasphemous all at once.  Slowly he stood up, bones popping from inaction as he pulled himself up to stand in the place wiped clean by the explosion of his coffin. <br/><br/>He walked, his steps uneven, even to the point of stumbling and having to lean against a solid gold human sized candelabra that hadn’t held open flames in the candles it possessed in ages.  Some of the wax eaten by rats who had long since left even this place.  Not even the rats had staid.  His eyes turned a molten amber before flames leapt to life and illuminated the ruins that he stood with in. <br/><br/><em>Huuuuuuhuuuh</em> <br/><br/>He drew a rattle of a breath as he struggled to keep his feet under him and straightened up, his body breathing heavily as he struggled to marshal his strength.  How long had he slept?  How long had it been since he’d last drank the life blood of a mortal?  He looked around and noticed a black rag that had once been crushed velvet.  A wave of revolution and pity washed over him as he struggled to walk to it.  Gripping the cloth he noticed his hands, and the talon like nails that had grown while he slept.  He pulled the cloth off revealing a polished onyx mirror with glittering blood red runes etched into the stone. <br/><br/>He looked at himself.  His flesh sculpted if a little on the willowy side.  His face a little gaunt from using so much magic to restore himself after such a long slumber.  He dusted his body off and inspected for any other flaws.  He’d had to make such a hasty retreat to his coffin last time that he hadn’t had much time to prepare.  Surveying what he could see of his body he wasn’t fully impressed with the magic.  He should have been restored to full health and vitality.  How long had he been asleep? <br/><br/>“Mirror, mirror black as sin, answer my questions from within.” His voice harsh and rough to his own ears as the runes began to glow with a dark power all their own. <br/><br/><em>Three hundred years to the day hast my master slumbered in his self made grave.</em> <br/><br/>“Three hundred…” He looked around and felt the chill of time and the cold grasp of all the still air.  He had been gone too long.  The outer edge of how long the magic could last.  His eyes, now a dull copper color, looked at his body more critically now.  He was lucky.  A few more decades and he’d have come back a far worse if at all. <br/><br/>“Mirror, Mirror, black as sin, tell me where I can find the nearest meal.” <br/><br/><em>Mortals shun this dark place.  Long ago they collapsed all roads and tunnels leading here.  So that none would be tempted to enter here and risk your return.  Spells were placed to drive the animals away.  And in time nothing living has trod upon your lands.</em> <br/><br/>“Crap.” He leaned against the mirror, and while his weight had moved the candelabra, the mirror was oddly unmoved. <br/><br/><em>But if you do not mind feasting upon something unliving…</em> <br/><br/>“What stocks my lands?” <br/><br/><em>An old servant was walled into an adjoining room.</em>  The mirrors’ surface rippled and showed a broken wooden puppet sitting in a pool of black ichor in a small cobweb filled chamber. <br/><br/>“That will do.” He slowly dragged himself over to the wall that joined their two rooms and using the last of his strength pushed on the stone that parted the wall.  He sliced through the cobwebs to where he found the small broken doll. <br/><br/>“mast….er….?” The doll’s head lulled to the side and looked through an empty socket and a cracked eye at him. <br/><br/>“Shhhh.  Rest now… you have served me well.” He hooked a nail under a hidden panel on the doll’s chest and pulled the chest off.  Inside was a human heart, barely beating, but still alive. <br/><br/>“master…. I did good?” His voice was failing from inside the doll. <br/><br/>“Yes my child.  You did very well.” He pulled the heart from his minion, sinking his fangs into the beating heart and drinking the black ichor.  His magic had stolen the child’s life to make his undead doll decades before his exile.  Now, now that self same heart would sustain him and bring him back to full health. <br/><br/>The sounds he made as he devoured the heart and the life blood and the magic, his eye cast upon the mirror saw his hair that had been a ghastly white slowly become quick silver before starting to darken.  His body returning to the supple beauty that he preferred, and as he tossed the lump of ruined flesh to the ground he stood there looking older than he’d have liked but much closer to his imitation of life. <br/><br/>“Better.” His voice thicker with his accent and sounding less grizzly than previous.  “Mirror, Mirror, black as sin, does the path still lay within?” He smiled as the mirror rippled then. <br/><br/><em>Indeed, it does oh Master mine, where do you desire to go?</em> <br/><br/>“Where is the nearest mortal dwelling?” <br/><br/><em>Deep in Svalich Woods there is a Vistani Camp, they have grown complacent, the new Chief of the tribe does not believe in the old ways.  Their charms and wards are not as closely guarded as they once were.  And there are those who have wandered to the outer edge of the caravan.</em> <br/><br/>“Open the way.” He placed his hand on the mirror and it seemed to hollow out on itself creating a tunnel that turned from rough stone to trees.  The night time air thick as the mist spilled into the dungeon.  He stepped through into the night and found himself naked in the Svalich Woods.  Not a place that many would care to go in day light fully clothed and well armed.  But he had nothing to fear here.  Especially if he could find a unbelieving Vistani child. <br/><br/>Silently he crept through the forest, stopping only once when he found an old charm that had not been tended to more than a generation.  The tribal magic was already failing on it, and the charm itself was more than half decayed.  The power though, the power in it was enough to make him stop and look at it but no other power could take him.  Shrugging it off, walking on into the forest almost to the clearing.  True to the mirror’s vision there alone on a rock looking up at the stars was a Vistani boy sitting there with his britches open. <br/><br/>The cunning vampire reached out with his mind, hearing the boy’s thoughts. Thoughts of love and adventure, of saving someone someday who’d owe him a life debt and would let him touch their body.  Smirking to himself he poured on a little power. <br/><br/>“<em>Vano…. Vano….</em>” He whispered into the wind, making the boy sit upright.  Fear etched on his face as if he expected to be caught touching himself. <br/><br/>“Who’s there?” Vano looked around frantically. <br/><br/>“<em>Help me Vano, I am trapped…</em>” He put the sorrow of every pain he’d ever felt into the words and saw the boy look back at the village.  “<em>Come to me Vano… I need you Vano…</em>” The pleading in his voice drawing the boy to do up his britches and walk shirtless into the night, the vampire slipped into the woods, sending his voice more and more to draw the boy into the forest.  Where he found the naked man lying on the ground, a tree laying across his midsection.  “<em>You’ve found me Vano…</em>” <br/><br/>“How do you know my name?” Vano hesitated.  Something wasn’t quite right about this… something. <br/><br/>“<em>Everyone knows of brave Vano of the Vistani.</em>” The vampires power dripped from every word making him feel as if he was well known. <br/><br/>“oh…” Vano blushed.  “What happened?” <br/><br/>“<em>Bandits, they knocked this tree on me and stole my clothes… I’m trapped… please Vano you must help me.</em>” <br/><br/>“Oh… of course…” Vano moved to the man’s legs trying to get a good grip on the tree only to find not only the tree, but the man’s very large and very hard penis sitting in the open.  “Uh….” <br/><br/>“<em>You must excuse my nakedness…</em>” <br/><br/>“but you’re so pretty…” Vano’s eyes were glassy. <br/><br/>“<em>If you get this tree off of me… I’d more than happily let you touch me anywhere you wanted…</em>” <br/><br/>“Anywhere?” Vano’s voice sounded distant. <br/><br/>“<em>Anywhere you wanted… even in the most forbidden of places…</em>” He smirked out of site of the boy but able to feel the arousal pouring off of him in waves.  He had him, he simply had to reel him in.  Vano managed to move the tree out of the way and the stranger rolled out before he stood up and presented all of himself to the boy.  The boy who felt somehow as if he was lacking in the presence of someone so beautiful. <br/><br/>“<em>My brave hero.</em>” His cold hand touched the warm flesh and the boy’s eyes went wide. “<em>So handsome too…</em>” He smiled as his eyes turned to molten amber as he looked Vano in the eyes.  “<em>Why don’t you join me…?</em>” <br/><br/>“join you?” <br/><br/>“<em>Take your clothes off…</em>” <br/><br/>“oh.” Vano undid the ties on his britches and stepped out of them, naked and wanting as he stood there in the open. <br/><br/>“<em>So beautiful…</em>” His fingers trailed down the start of Vano’s chest and taking a hold of the base of him and began to stroke him till he was throbbing in his hand. <br/><br/>“please…” Vano sobbed with need. <br/><br/>“<em>Come with me.</em>” He led the boy through the forest by his cock till the trees became stone that bled together and they stepped out into the dungeons.  Vano blinked as he looked around, finally realizing something was wrong. <br/><br/>“my clothes…” <br/><br/>“<em>You no longer need them….</em>” He ran his fingers through the boy’s flaxen hair, before pulling him into a kiss.  He could ground in the boy’s lips but he wanted something more.  His eyes taking the last ounces of his strength he’d earned from the heart earlier the bespelled Vano’s eyes.  “<em>Do not move, do not scream, do not make a sound, let what happens happen.</em>” <br/><br/>“yes master….” His voice light and airy as he was completely under his master’s dread sway.  Ghosting his hands down the boy’s body he pulled him to him, clutching him tight against his bare chest, he sank his fangs into the boy’s neck.  He wouldn’t kill this one.  No, too long had he been without a companion.  But while he was able to will the illusion of his turgid state, without actual blood in his system he wouldn’t be able to live up to the illusion.  And he wished to consummate their bond.  So he drank deeply of the boy’s neck, drinking his life essence away from him. <br/><br/>He could feel the heart slowing and he pulled back, licking the wound to heal it.  The boy was pale, his body fragile.  And the vampire walked him over to the mirror pinning him against it with a smirk, his strength returned.  His body flooded with power he looked at the mirror. <br/><br/>“Mirror, Mirror, Black as sin, open the date to what’s within.” Blood red runes began to flood across the surface of the mirror.  “Hear my call and feel my power, transform this one this very hour.” The runes poured off the mirror and began to dance like animated tattoos across Vano’s skin.  He gasped and silently screamed, still compelled not to speak or make a sound even while in this much pain.  The marks pooling at his hands and feet, staining them a deep blood red, that seemed to fade into normal skin tones at calf and forearm.  His normally brown eyes blown wide before they transformed to liquid ruby light, his body convulsing as his nails grew into claws <br/><br/>Vano’s head fell forward, small crystal horns breaking through his forehead leaving him bleeding down his face in rivets of blood as he hung there against the mirror.  A ruby red tail hanging down between his legs and he simply shuddered as his shoulders broke open and grew large purple wings with ruby leather skin flaps.  He smiled upon his work opening the boy’s mouth to see his fangs where they’d grown out and with one last push of his power, runes of power tattooed themselves around the boy’s throat binding him as a Servant of Strahd Von Zarovich, his minion. <br/><br/>“Vano of the Vistani hear me.” The boy opened his eyes.  “I rename you child.  You are now Varo Ravenloft, bound Incubi of Strahd Von Zarovich, me.” Strahd let his eyes swell with power. <br/><br/>“Yes master…” Varo spoke with his forked tongue, feeling strangely hot.  “What’s wrong with me?” <br/><br/>“You’re an incubi.  You hunger for the flesh of a man’s sex thrust down your throat or up your arse.  You can’t survive without either.  And bound to me you must serve my cock and devour my seed if you wish to see the dawn.” Strahd dropped the boy on the ground. <br/><br/>“How will you feed me master?” Varo looked up with hunger in his eyes. <br/><br/>“With great pleasures.” Strahd gripped the boy’s chin and raised it to look him in the eye.  “Now open your mouth my incubi.” <br/><br/>“Yes master.” Varo opened his mouth and held himself still as his master fed his cock down his virgin throat.  His face flushed, a virgin incubi, giving himself to his master, the man who seduced him and made him this whorish beast.  His eyes teared up as he took his master’s long hard member to the hilt.  His body spasming at the intrusion and the restriction of his air way.  But while he could not breathe, he didn’t feel like he was suffocating <br/><br/>“Such is the beauty of an incubi, so long as you feed it with sex, it needs not food, nor water, nor rest or even air to breath.  You are sustained wholly by my manhood and so long as it is in you in one fashion or another you are nigh immortal.”  He pulled out and rolled his hips, thrusting his entire cock down the boy’s throat again.  “And I will teach you to deep throat my cock like I’m slotting my hand in a glove.  Your throat will conform to my sex and you will learn to relish when I am inside you.” <br/><br/>Varo could do nothing but nod and when he tried to speak it vibrated his throat making his master groan with pleasure, something more spilling out of him.  It was like eating pure sunshine.  The raw power spilling into him, healing him and making him feel well rested and well fed on just the trickle of precum down his throat and that moan from his master’s lips.  God, he wanted more.  So his hands came up and began to stroke and caress every part of his master that he could touch. <br/><br/>“Good boy.” Strahd praised the little slut.  His fingers curling through the short red hair and pulling on it as he fucked into Varo’s throat with abandon.  He didn’t need to be gentle; he didn’t need to take care.  All he needed was to pound into that worthless throat and use the whore for all it was worth.  All too soon he felt his balls drawing taunt to his body as he buried himself to the hilt in the boy’s throat, giving him his first taste of the vampire’s seed.  Smirking as he roared his release, he held the boy to his groin before slowly with drawing and standing back to watch the boy swallow and lick his lips. <br/><br/>“more…” His eyes were burning gems in the night as he looked at Strahd’s dripping cock and charged to capture it in his lips once more.  He brought his master a couple more times before he was taken to a chamber that looked like it had not been used in too long. <br/><br/>“Master…?” <br/><br/>“The castle has sat open and rotting for far too long.  <strong><em>AWAKEN!</em></strong>” Strahd bellowed and faceless spirits poured out of the walls in the room to line up before him.  “My Shadows, see to this chamber’s reconstruction.  This one, Varo Ravenloft is your master in this chamber.  You will obey his commands as if they come from my lips, is that understood?” <br/><br/><em>Yes master.</em>  The black masses of living shadow nodded before clearing the room. <br/><br/>“Stay here, keep them working.  I’ll be back soon enough to see to claiming other parts of you.” He smacked the boy’s ass, walking back to his dungeon he stepped in front of the mirror one last time. <br/><br/>“Mirror, Mirror, Black as sin, Tell me where those I see begin?” The surface rippled before the voice spoke. <br/><br/><em>You seek those born with the cursed blood do you not?</em>  The mirror seemed to be considering its options. <br/><br/>“I do.” Strahd nodded. <br/><br/><em>There are those who bare the curse brand in their blood.  Some in the villages, some in the country side.  And a few in places of holy magic, protecting them since birth from thy influence.</em> <br/><br/>“Then it is time I call them to me.” He put his palm flat on the surface of mirror.  “Send the invocation.”  The mirror rippled and released a thrumming claxon like noise that echoed out from the castle.  Only those with the curse brand would hear its call.  All others would be left unaware that the Master of Ravenloft Castle had returned to his ancient seat of power.  Though soon they would notice. <br/><br/>In the village of Barovia, several began to dream of dark things that spilled out of their minds creating living shadows and trapping them in a never ending dream so long as the creatures existed.  While the still of the night broken in the cemetery as graves broke forth and ghouls, skeletons, and zombies pulled themselves from their earthen prisons and began to shamble their way towards the Ravenloft castle.  Cackling came from the Tser pool awakening those in the encampment to the return of the Tser Hag.  While those who made their home near the Tser Falls played sleeping witness to hell hounds forming from blackened pools in the murky water.  And screams that bled into howls pierced the night in the Vallaki Valley as residence awoke to their bodies convulsing, their flesh bursting as they became werewolves, the curse long since hidden in their blood called by their master to the surface. <br/><br/>But the worst was in the Vistani encampment that Varo had belonged to.  With a hiss the ground cracked and rained down into the poor man’s graves that the Vistani had been burying their dead in.  Too long had they neglected the traditions and teachings of their people.  So long dead Vistani, powerful in life, and even more so in death, awoke in the night as blood hungry revenants, their minds and personalities gone, only the hunger for flesh and death lingered in them as they stalked out of their graves.  The Vistani would be wiped out or they’d relearn their heritage.  Either way, they would not be a problem for much longer. <br/><br/>Strahd smiled to himself, today, these things would come to pass.  And in the morning, the echo would travel out.  Spreading till all the children of Mother Night heard his call and obeyed him once more.  And in the end, that’s all he was worried about right now.  Once he had his forces gathered, once he was strong and healthy and well fed, he’d begin the task of creating his children and spreading his dark curse across the land. <br/><br/>What he didn’t expect was the call to reach four souls, spread across the landscape.  These souls were human, tainted by the curse brand they bore, but they had no desire for his darkness.  And now, in their disparate points on the map, they knew Strahd Von Zarovich was back.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Trouble in a Quiet Place</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Strahd's influence is starting to spread through out the night.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rapturous colors cascaded into one another, shapes and forms springing anew as icebergs marching like giants across the sky sliding along till they dissolved, transforming into diaphanous streams of membranous folds generating unearthly lights in queer angles.  The astral sea, stretched out from his perch in the garden atop Mount Ghakis.  Here he meditated, viewing the tapestry of the soul as it danced and breathed around him.  The spirits of all things alive and dead, knowing no time, no space, only the ever present now, joined in a harmonious song of existence. <br/><br/>Usually it was his respite from the world.  He’d always been gifted with the sight.  Irsu the dreamer they’d called him when he was young.  Often he’d be found looking after others as they moved on, able to see the ghostly after images that trailed along behind people, their astral wake.  A skill which, as it grew, had only given him the later aptitude at reading auras.  A talent that had served him well as he grew into a life as a sneak thief and worse, which was exactly how he’d ended up here. <br/><br/>His prison, and his salvation. <br/><br/>The Monastic Order of the Morning Lord, an ancient temple hewn directly from the raw living stone of Mount Ghakis long ago.  Every generation worked to maintain what was already there and to carve out more.  By the time he came to this place, there had been the gardens and terraces that surrounded the temples’ main body.  And there were the labyrinths and catacombs that went into the mountain proper.  This place had been a great mystery when he’d come here ten long years ago. <br/><br/>Now it was his prison of complacency, even if he loved the edges of his cage. <br/><br/>So he came here, to this garden that butted against the mountain, put his back against the ancient stone that had known this world since before man walked it, and looked out into the swirling vortex of the astral sea.  It brought him peace.  A sound in the stillness.  The monks had long ago taken a vow of limited words.  They only spoke when they needed to, and never more than that. <br/><br/>It had been a mostly silent ten years.  In the beginning he had thrived off of it.  No one asking about his past, or why he’d come here with fake papers lying about who he was and where he was from.  But now… now the sound of the universe and the colors of the astral sea were his only peace.  But tonight something disturbed it. <br/><br/>A discordant noise, a squalling cacophony that screamed as it tore at the fabric of the world. <br/><br/>It started as a twisted blood red moon that rose over Ravenloft Moors.  A black inky liquid that twisted and devoured anything and everything that came within range of it.  Perverting all that it touched and leaving a gnarled mass of chaos in its wake.  All of it centered on Ravenloft Castle itself, a hungry maw trying to swallow the world. <br/><br/>“What are you…” He muttered softly before a flock of arclight phoenixes took flight, the flash of lightning in their wake nearly blinding him as they flew away.  “What has you so scared…” He looked out at this unearthly landscape and saw a shadow figure walking towards the mountain, monsters springing up in the Æther around it as it moved on.  A cloak made of liquid night spilling forward as it walked towards the mountain. <br/><br/>Slamming his fists together he cast an astral wall around the mountain.  A brilliant shimmering aurora like light surrounded the mountain.  The shadow walked up and tried to push it open.  The Shadow horror’s touch was cold and burned as it touched.  But Irsu could hold the wall if it didn’t get any worse.  There was power there but not enough to warrant waking the other brothers of the monastery.  He was wondering how soon it’d give up when a new flood of dark power seemed to pour into the creature. <br/><br/><em>Chhhiiiickrrrrricccchhh</em> <br/><br/>He watched as the creature reached out with another arm and began tearing at its own form.  Shredding it cloak to reveal a skittering horror, a chaotic mismatching of insectoid parts in a diabolical symmetry began to pound and scratch at the wall.  Irsu panted, this was bigger… more powerful than it had been.  He… he had to… he reached into the depths of his power, astral armor, like a ghostly green shell made of light and fur formed around his arms as he struggled to keep them together and hold the wall against this assault.  But he was losing. <br/><br/>This beast was too powerful for him alone.  He felt the shield spell cracking so instead of maintaining it, he allowed his power to shift into something else.  A psychic scream went through the monastery, his last effort waking the other monks.  He fell from his perch and panted, watching the wall he’d erected crumble and darkness spill into this place.  The light of the monks was enough to push some of it away but the darkness was overpowering them. <br/><br/>He struggled to get his feet under him and made it to the great icon of a Felidar carved into the center of the monastery.  He put his hand on the great stone paw and put as much energy as he could into his plea.  “Please mighty Morning Lord, we need your strength, please send the Felidar to protect us from these horrors….” He felt an energy springing up in the statue but couldn’t stay to watch, he had to focus his energy from his eyes to his legs, projecting four extra large cat like legs made of that same Ætheric green glass like fur that seemed to help him move faster, gaining ground and helping him get to the head of the wall the monks were making, fighting off smaller monsters as they sprang up out of the ground. <br/><br/>He added his strength to theirs and began to repel the lesser evils. <br/><br/>“AWWW!” A brother screamed before vanishing into the darkness. <br/><br/>“What the…” Irsu barely got out before a mud black bat flew at him.  Bigger than a normal bat and looking like living clay, he had just enough time to dodge it before it dug it’s claws into the shoulder of the monk behind him.  As the monk screamed, the bat burst into flames, scorching him and flapping away. <br/><br/>“FIRE BATS!” Irsu screamed, he’d seen these before, but never this far south.  They avoided the cold of the mountains.  So why were they being driven so far away… He looked over the hoard and spotted the skittering horror that had been the shadow horror.  It was undulating, twisting on itself as and he realized with panic he’d seen this before.  They’d found a boy on a job once.  He’d been begging to be free and they snapped his chains. <br/><br/>They hadn’t realized the chains were all that kept him human, or that his pleas weren’t fr freedom but for death.  He’d watched something dark twist itself inside the boy’s flesh before it burst out of him, leaving shreds of him hanging from every surface around where his body had been and the dark creature that had burst out had been a baby gargoyle.  They’d had to put the beast down but he recognized this, something in the movements. <br/><br/>And as big as that thing was this wasn’t going to be a baby anything, and he doubted they’d be lucky enough for it to be a gargoyle this time. <br/><br/>“MUTATION!” He screamed, using his power to echo and draw attention, his finger pointed at the monster that was waving it’s pincers and claws, directing the flow of monsters at them.  Someone farther out created a lance of light and fired it at the beast.  A chunk of its carapace broke off, flying back and imbedding itself into the monsters behind it, killing them instantly. <br/><br/>But what protruded out of that spot now was a twisted horn… <br/><br/>That wasn’t right…. Pooling what light he could from a nearby torch in his hand he formed a sun lance and threw it at the beast, its face collapsing and shedding off of itself, revealing what was beneath.  A twisted grin carved into a living skull that the horns flowed out of.  Irsu’s eyes went wide.  That wasn’t a horror, that was a fiend. <br/><br/>Shit. <br/><br/>He hurled another lance at it and more of the chitin fell away revealing leather armor with demon runes slowly glowing on its chest plate.  They weren’t hurting it, it was too far gone for that.  They were helping it to be born.  And then he saw a creature near it shrivel and die.  It was eating its own hoard. <br/><br/>“Feeding Fiend!” He shouted and a hail of sun spears landed near the creature, destroying the hoard around him, a few at a time.  The creature twisted, shedding more and more of itself. <br/><br/>“It’s not just feeding…” Another monk hunkered down by him.  ‘It’s feeding on their life and their death…” <br/><br/>“not good.” Irsu sighed.  “We can’t kill them or they’ll feed him, and we can’t let them live or they’ll feed him.  This is bad.” <br/><br/>“Can you isolate him?” The other monk frowned. <br/><br/>“What do you have planned?” <br/><br/>“We can’t allow them to live and we can’t allow them to die… here.” <br/><br/>“A transportation spell?” <br/><br/>“It will take the whole of the rest of us to banish this many beasts away…” The monk looked worried.  “The fire bats are spawning more and more every time they take a drop of our blood.  The other monsters are starting to break our lines…” <br/><br/><em>Then I shall assist you.</em>  They turned and standing there, tall and regal the Felidar stepped amongst them and charged, pouncing into the hoard to keep the monsters at bay and away from the monks. <br/><br/>“Do it now.” Irsu climbed atop a low stone wall and slammed his fists together, trapping the half formed creature in a wall of aurora colors.  “Hurry…” He panted, barely holding the monster as it shed more and more of itself.  What stood in its stead a large fiend, put its large clawed hand on the wall of light he was making and pushed.  A black crack forming under its palm. <br/><br/><em>Let me out…</em> <br/><br/>“I don’t think so…” <br/><br/><em>I am a Master of Cruelties… you can not hope to contain me…</em> <br/><br/>“Funny, I think I’m doing a bang up job…” He chuckled; sweat starting to roll down his face as he strained to hold the spell. <br/><br/><em>Simple monk… you… can not…</em>  He pushed harder, the crack splintered out, spreading farther and farther as he applied more and more pressure. <br/><br/>“Stay.” Irsu put more strength into it, feeling his astral self’s arms form out of that Ætheric green glass like fur formed paws that held his fists together. <br/><br/><em>Interesting… not many monks have that kind of power…</em>  The fiend smirked, wiping his hand on his leather armor, a slight burn from where the shield had knitted itself back together against his hand.  <em>You can’t hold me forever….</em> <br/><br/>“Don’t have to.” He panted, his eyes going glassy as he put more and more of himself into holding the wall of light around his target. <br/><br/><em>It’s too late…</em>  He raised his hands and the hoard began to die in earnest, their life force and their death force feeding him in captivity.  Half the hoard was gone now, the rest was moving not towards the monks, but towards the Master of Cruelties. <br/><br/>“no….” Irsu panted, his mind starting to white out as the power was over taking him. <br/><br/><em>Give in monk.  Give in let me go… I’ll take you quick…</em>  The cracks began to spread again. <br/><br/>“no…” Irsu couldn’t let this happen… he couldn’t… <br/><br/><em>Do you wish for power?</em>  A voice sounded inside his skull. <br/><br/>I can’t let him go…. <br/><br/><em>You could have power… its waiting for you…</em> <br/><br/>What…? <br/><br/><em>Just reach out and take it.</em>  The voice whispered, a symbol forming in the back of his mind.  <em>Just reach out… and take it…</em>  He grasped the symbol in his mind and screamed. <br/><br/><em>AAA</em><em>AAA</em><em>AAA</em><em>AAAHHHHHH<strong>HH</strong><strong>HHHHH</strong></em><strong><em>HHHHHHGGGG</em></strong><strong><em>GGGGGGHHHH</em></strong> <br/><br/>A clouded leopard in a humanoid shape formed around him, dark emerald green runes engraved themselves into the green glass like structure of his true astral self.  His eyes going pure black with jade fire like irises glowing out of the dark.  Fangs like a large cat’s snarled as he roared.  And he shifted his hands to one being a fist and the other being an open palm around it.  The only other sound was the scream of the Master of Cruelties, the astral wall around him became a solid impenetrable wall of light that cut him off from the rest of the field. <br/><br/>“Irsu….” One of the monks yelled. <br/><br/>“BANISH THEM!?” He snarled and the monks returned to their spell, quickly casting a group banishing that caused the remaining monsters to ripple and fade from existence, casting them somewhere else in space and time.  The hoard gone the fiend was cut off from his food supply.  Irsu walked towards him, the wall becoming transparent again so that they could see one another. <br/><br/><em>What are you?!?</em>  The creature’s eyes showed fear. <br/><br/>“I am what kills you.” Irsu shoved his fist into the demon’s chest, through his armor and pulled out his blackened heart as it still beat in his hand.  Before biting into it, his face covered in the black ichor of the demons’ blood. <br/><br/><em>You…</em>  The fiend reached out and grabbed Irsu, his claws sinking into the astral armor of his astral self.  <em>… he’ll want you… </em>He muttered, a black venom spreading out from his finger tips into the astral form.  <em>… must kill you before….</em>  He was clinging to Irsu now, but Irsu was starting to have to fight to stay standing.  Between this new power and the venom from the demon he was dying.  He knew that.  The pair of them fell to their knees before the demon turned ashen. <br/><br/>“You sent you demon?” The master of the temple walked up. <br/><br/><em>My master….</em> <br/><br/>“Who?” The master held up an icon of the Morning Lord, it blazed bright in his hand as he exposed it to the demon. <br/><br/><em>Lord Strahd is once more in his ancestral home….</em>  The creature turned to ash and blew away, the last thing that Irsu saw was the human face of the beast as all the darkness fell away, the soul had been human. <br/><br/><em>What happened?</em>  He asked into the void watching the soul fade. <br/><br/><em>I chose the curse brand…. Same as you…</em>  And he was gone.  Leaving Irsu spitting up blood, his body bruised and damaged as the world was swallowed up in a blackness that he hadn’t expected to last so long.  He sat up later, the healing ward’s blue linens all around him as he struggled to get free of the blankets.  He looked at the windows and saw the night outside the room.  He had to shield his eyes from the torches that seemed to burn his eyes. <br/><br/>“We were not sure you would awaken again.” The Master was sitting at the foot of his bed, calmly watching him. <br/><br/>“What…” <br/><br/>“The Master of Cruelties is a dangerous large fiend, who has the gift of death touch.  The only means to survive is to completely block his attack… it however leaves the one who survives with only the barest fragment of life remaining in their body.” <br/><br/>“Who healed me…?” Irsu looked around, confused. <br/><br/>“You did.” The master pulled back blue hood, revealing the bandages that covered his upper half of his face.  The Master had always been thusly covered.  An injury with a beast of the forest in his youth had marred him and he’d chosen to use his psychic and mental skills to see the world without physical eyes. <br/><br/>“How… I… I can’t heal…” Irsu had never had the capacity to cast healing magic. <br/><br/>“That power you tapped into…” <br/><br/>“The rune…” Irsu frowned and the Master stood and removed some of the bandages, a new months old looking tattoo of runes that Irsu couldn’t read now spiraled out from where the Master of Cruelties had infected him with his venomous touch.  “I don’t….” <br/><br/>“They formed in your skin, spilling out from your blood and your soul.  And they resurrected you.” <br/><br/>“What do they say?” <br/><br/>“I can no read them… for the language that they come from has been dead for longer than most have walked this part of the earth.” <br/><br/>“Than…” <br/><br/>“Did you hear the monster’s decree on <em>who</em> its master was/” <br/><br/>“Lord Strahd…” Irsu nodded. <br/><br/>“It is said that in the old days, Lord Strahd marked his generals with runes of power that he had access to from some other place that is beyond us.  And these runes made his generals more powerful.  Gave them health, life, longevity, and strength.  And that while they bore those marks they were unkillable unlike others of their breed.” <br/><br/>“I don’t….” <br/><br/>“Vampires were immune to sun light, werewolves to silver, so long as they bore those marks, those dark runes… his cursed brand… they were his and they could not stop.  The brand would only vanish when he was defeated or killed.  I do not know what claim he has to you or your soul… but that mark was within you before today.” <br/><br/>“How…?” <br/><br/>“This you must discover yourself.” The Master patted him on the shoulder.  “All that we know we will tell you before we send you on your journey to discover the truth of your nature.” He fingers ghosted over the edge of the tattoo, never actually touching it. <br/><br/>“thank you…” Irsu bowed his head.  He wasn’t sure what he was going to do.  The Master told him to rest, they would not put him out in the worst part of night.  There were bound to be more monsters.      Strahd had awakened a slumbering darkness in the world, and the monks could spare no one to warn the outer world, though he didn’t think they’d have any more warning that the monks had had tonight.  In truth the attack likely happened everywhere inside Strahd’s domain. <br/><br/>Irsu closed his eyes, slipping into his astral self and looking out at the world.  There were dark masses moving in the world, he could see them through the mountain, attacking villages and struggling to overtake the land.  But nothing else was headed towards them tonight.  He laid back down and then turned his astral sight on himself. <br/><br/>There was the jade color of his spiritual energy flowing through him, but now there were verdant and emerald colors, rich dark tones that wove in and out of him, and seemed to connect back to the place on his shoulder where the runes had spread.  He didn’t understand what had happened to him, only that he was cursed.  Cursed by something from the last time that Strahd had walked this earth, and that had likely been lost to history as far as any of the myths were concerned. <br/><br/>Irsu wasn’t sure how long he lay there contemplating the fate of the world and his own fate now that this curse that he presumably had his entire life was awakened.  Would he be consumed by it as the monster had been tonight, a man transfigured into an ever evolving horror by dark magic?  All he was sure of was when the Librarian arrived. <br/><br/>“Master Adrik.” Irsu greeted the Librarian. <br/><br/>“Irsu, I am told you require the use of my charge.” Adrik bowed slightly. <br/><br/>“I need to know all we know about these runes…” He gestured to the marks he now bore. <br/><br/>“Ah.  Yes.  The curse brand…” Adrik looked down. <br/><br/>“What is it?” He could all but feel that Adrik was hiding something from him.  The short portly man had the air of someone who didn’t want to speak about something. <br/><br/>“I’ll gather the books you’ll require…” <br/><br/>“Master Adrik…?” Irsu sat up. <br/><br/>“Leave it alone.” Adrik shook his head. <br/><br/>“I have a curse growing in my soul put there by dark magic by the dark vampire lord who seeks to rule us all, and you want me to not ask questions about why you’re giving off the sense that you know something that I don’t and you’re scared to tell me?” <br/><br/>“Yes.” His shoulders slumped. <br/><br/>“What is it?” His tone booking no resistance. <br/><br/>“The mark… has two versions.” He sighed, not daring to look at Irsu. <br/><br/>“I’m guessing one is like what we saw tonight?” <br/><br/>“Yes… after a fashion. Each person marked by it transforms differently, each to his own breed.  Those who have werewolf in their blood become werewolves, those who have vampire in their blood turn to vampires.  Whatever breed that beast had come from tonight, it possessed the power to constantly evolve into something more powerful than its last form.  But it was one of the first types of the mark.” Adrik sighed, sitting down.  “the first type of the mark is simple and straight forward.  At the moment of Lord Strahd’s call all those marked who will have the first type of mark will transform that moment and become like slaves to him.  Bound by his will and unable to function if they attempt to act against his wishes.” <br/><br/>“And the other?” Irsu swallowed slowly. <br/><br/>“The second type is worse…” He glanced at Irsu now. <br/><br/>“Worse how?” Irsu didn’t like the sound of any of this but he was pretty sure he had better know what he was in for so he could possibly combat it. <br/><br/>“Those who have the second form, do not transform when first called.  Instead they are tempted, and when they take the curse and whatever it has offered them… it burrows into the deepest core of their being,” He sighed heavily, looking for all the world like he would rather fling himself off the cliff than be here saying this.  “Where it will infest their soul, infecting every aspect of their being in accordance to their breed.  And when it has matured and consumed all that there is of the host, their new true form will emerge…” <br/><br/>“Emerge how?” <br/><br/>“You saw how the creature began to shed its previous form” Adrik looked away.  “When the mark has consumed everything it can of you, corrupted you beyond all salvation… it will burst a new being out, shredding mind, body and soul, leaving them as a discarded husk and what will stand in your stead will be a loyal upper level demon lord or similar, loyal only to Strahd, and become his general to lead his army against the armies of man.” <br/><br/>“That’s how he made his generals before?” <br/><br/>“That’s how he’s always made them.  When he did not see someone of potential in the ranks of his armies and grant them the runes then.  He once took a particularly powerful werewolf who could not return to human form and marked him in the last uprising… the result was a fearsome creature twice the size of regular wolf men… and who used dark magic to command a legion of werewolves.  The various tribes of man who helped to stop Strahd last time knew what would happen if they allowed that werewolf to survive.  He would eventually breed… and all of his offspring would carry the curse brand in them, as well as the wolf’s curse.” <br/><br/>“Meaning for me to have had it since birth…” <br/><br/>“One of your parents was likewise cursed, going back three hundred years or more to one of the times Strahd replenished his ranks.” <br/><br/>“Then shouldn’t the brothers be attempting to put me down before I can bring this creature into being?” Irsu didn’t like the idea of dying, but he liked the idea of playing nurse mother and brood mare to a demon even less. <br/><br/>“Impossible.  There are only two things that can kill those who are marked.  The first is their marked form when it sheds their human body… the other is Strahd himself.” <br/><br/>“great….” <br/><br/>“Though some believe the sun sword could possibly cut it out of you… but that’s only a legend, no one in recorded memory has ever attempted to do it, and while you’re powers yet grow through this new path… it is possible you can use the power to do some good yet.” <br/><br/>“What good would that be?” Irsu wasn’t sure he wanted to know what he could be used for, wasn’t it bad enough that he was fated to die by this thing he’d foolishly welcomed into his being. <br/><br/>“It is said that if you can strike a mortal blow at Lord Strahd… force him into the grave or into slumber… all those who have had their mark awakened will return to their previous form.” <br/><br/>“The mark would fade?” <br/><br/>“Returning you to who you were only yesterday.” Adrik nodded. <br/><br/>“Fetch the books… I much desire to discover all that we know about this subject, and the vampire Lord Strahd.” <br/><br/>“Yes brother.” Adrik nodded, scurrying off to see about the books and leaving Irsu alone with his thoughts.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Bloodying the Sheets</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He walked his halls to this bedchambers, breathing in the young one’s scent even now.  Smirking, he threw open the chamber and looked at his <em>bride</em> on the bed, his body spread out before him.  Varo was spread on the bed, his naked body lying decadently draped almost like he was painted on the refreshed silks.</p><p>“You’ve been busy…?” Strahd raised an eyebrow, looking around the chamber he’d left in utter disarray and ruination, but now he was standing in a pristine bed chamber that was well dressed and staged.</p><p>“I can’t take credit for everything.” Varo looked around.  “While you were gone there was a wave of energy, and it started repairing the chamber.  I simply moved objects around to see what we had and how it best went together…” He blushed as he looked down.</p><p>“The tribe did not… appreciate your <em>talents</em>?” Strahd smiled before stroking down Varo’s cheek.</p><p>“not exactly…” Varo blushed.</p><p>“Your talents will always be appreciated here.” Strahd drew the boy up to a kiss, drinking in his power and warmth of life.  Sure the boy was burning through what was left of his human life, and the sex that they’d had earlier to feed himself and survive, but there was a rightness to their equality in this bargain.  Varo would feed him blood and he would feed sex to Varo.  It was perfect symmetry, something that appealed to his nature of wanting connections, even if it was for a moment with most creatures.</p><p>“Thank you.” Varo blushed as they kissed, his body growing full at the attention.</p><p>“Something is requiring my careful attention.” Strahd gave a slight grin, a hint of fang.</p><p>“Oh?” Varo’s eyes glowed slightly.</p><p>“Yes.” Strahd let the world roll off his tongue and wrap his target in a velvet sense of arousal as he smirked and reached out his hand.  A rune flashed on the wall and a small black iron pot came to his hand and floated there as he dipped his fingers into the lubricant that the magic had refreshed.  His fingers liberally coated he slipped his fingers against Varo’s opening and began to slowly stretch him open while he used his other hand to lift the young Incubus’ balls and began to nurse on them.</p><p>“M-master!” He whined as his legs spread, his tail curling and uncurling as he clutched at the bed, trying to keep himself as still as he could.  His mind all but going blank as a kind of buzzing started in his ears.  Well more lower than that actually as he tried to localize it.  He felt this red buzzing just on the other side of his balls, looking at his Master he could see his energy pulsing and buzzing and felt his eyes glow as his body opened up, slick with lube and need.  “Please… master…” He whimpered.</p><p>“Someone’s hungry…” Strahd purred against those swollen balls at his lips.</p><p>“oh master…” He begged, spreading his legs all the more.</p><p>“Much more and you may dislocate something…” He chuckled against the boy’s groin before sucking on his balls, his hand going around the base of the swollen member to gently squeeze it as he fingered the boy open.  Not that he needed much prep work with an Incubus.  Their bodies produced a fair amount of natural lubricant regardless of form when aroused.  And also caused their muscles to open up more, making it possible for him to go from just a couple fingers to four with great ease, Strahd smirked at the little resistance he was encountering now.  “But I do think you could use something… more solid…”He reached out the hand that had been fingering the boy and summoned a sex toy from its hiding place.</p><p>It was a carved snow dildo that he’d had commissioned long ago off of a previous lover.  In truth he had every man who had ever graced his court immortalized as a carved replica.  He wondered if the dildo makers were still in the local town absently as he lubed up the stone and pressed it against the willing opening.</p><p>“oh… OH MASTER!” He cried out, his body coming off the bed as his wings went wide.  His eyes wide as he panted; the first inch or two of the wide toy inside him.</p><p>“Like that did you?” Strahd gave a toothy grin, proud of his work thus far.  Before dipping down to lick along Varo’s balls up to the base of his cock, his eyes locked on Varo’s as he worked more of the toy into the boy and licked up his length till he captured the swollen tip.</p><p>“UHHHHHHHNG!” Varo groaned a breathy moan, his body trembling as he struggled to claw the air and find something to grasp onto.  Strahd smirked around him as he swallowed him down, mentally pushing more of the energy into the boy so he’d start feeding.  It didn’t take long before he felt the pull on his power, could see the glow in the boy’s skin.  Good.  He wanted him fueled for what came next.</p><p>Rocking the toy back and forth he delighted in the noise that Varo made as he clawed at the bed, his talons going into the bed in a futile attempt to find something to hold onto.  His eyes now burning embers in the shadows of his faces.  The raw hunger burning in those flames made Strahd give a dark chuckle.</p><p>“You seem ready.” His own eyes glowing as he slowly pulled back, pulling the toy out from its half penetrative state.  Casting it aside he lifted the boy’s hips and positioning himself at his entrance and stroked himself quickly before a dark smirk crossed his face and he slid into the boy in one smooth thrust, bottoming out as the boy threw his head back, reveling in the sheer size of him.</p><p>“I’m ready.” He panted.</p><p>“You sure/” Strahd gave a chuckle.</p><p>“I said… I’m ready.” Varo let his power into his voice, the echo of otherworldly power bleeding in as he gave a determined nod.</p><p>“Then let the games begin my young one.” Pulling his hips back he began what was to be one of the best nights of Varo’s life.  His hips slamming in and out as they moved towards the head of the bed, the entire bed shaking with the power of their two bodies moving.  Their bodies smashing into each other, Strahd’s fangs breaching the skin of Varo’s lip to drink in blood as he poured sexual energy into Varo from every part of his skin the pair of them drinking each other down with all their strength.  Both panting as they hit the headboard, the ancient wood creaking as they slammed into it.</p><p>
  <em>Crack</em>
</p><p>Strahd smiled as the board splintered, already threatening to split, pulling back from his drinking to kiss bloody kisses down Varo’s arms to his wrists where talon tipped fingers were tearing into the wood.  He licked along the long arched fingers and sucked on the talons of one hand before kissing his way back up to that bloody lip.  Licking it he panted, and started fucking again.  Somewhere in their haste the posters of the bed gave way and the canopy fell behind them, but Strahd was already standing by that point.</p><p>Varo’s back against the wall, the ruined bead board around Strahd’s knees as he fucked the boy against the wall.  Bringing those glorious thighs up around his waist, Strahd licked his way to his lover’s neck.  The vampire plunging his fangs into the runes of power at the boy’s throat as he arched his back, Strahd hanging on for dear life as he planted his hands on either side of the boy’s head.  A feral growl issuing from his lips as he put his leg up the wall and planted first his right foot and then his left flat on the wall.</p><p>Now crouched over the boy who was pinned against the wall he could taste the power he’d fed into his incubi, and the power fueled in the blood.  Blood runes began to pour from the back of his neck down in a dark line down the back of his arms, down the middle of his back and parting just over his ass before going down the back of his legs.  Each one pulsing to life with power and magic as he fed, his hard cock still fucking the boy ensuring that they both fed off one another completely.  Blood for the vampire, sex for the incubi, on and on they went, neither tiring as they fed and were fed upon.</p><p>Strahd began to walk up the wall, fucking his beloved as he went, pounding into the boy who’s head eventually hit the ceiling with shock.  He looked confused for a moment before falling back to capture his master’s lips in tribute and joyous union.  His head bent his shoulders were soon pressed against the ceiling and he found himself slowly sliding <em>up</em> and along the ceiling as if it was but another place designed to hold the glory of their lustful repose.</p><p>Strahd reared back, his body now hanging completely upside down on his knees while Varo was on his back, his ass <em>up</em> for him lined up with his master as his legs dangled almost to his master’s shoulders.  Strahd threw back his head and roared as he claimed his boy’s tight hole.  Pulling a leg <em>up</em> to his lips and kissing the ankle before biting into the vein and drinking of the boy as he pulled back and kissed the spot, leaving a blood rune on his ankle.  Smirking as he licked that spot again, he pulled out and brought Varo’s ass <em>up</em> to his lips and ate him out.</p><p>“Oh master…” He cried out, his body arched on his neck as he rode his Master’s face, fingers opening him up as he felt the absence of the cock in him and his master, though his long questing tongue was a good match for it.  The sheet that had gotten wrapped around his leg was now draped over his lower back and his master’s chin, held in place between them.  He moaned and begged, his body thrashing as he was cleaned out before a firm smack to his ass brought him back to reality.</p><p>
  <em>SMACK</em>
</p><p>“Turn over.”  Turn… over?  He frowned but did as he was bid straddling his master’s lap and settling the blanket between himself and the ceiling, as that long thick cock was once again fed into his hungry hole.  His chest and neck flat against the ceiling he clawed at the stones <em>below</em> him as he did his best to push back and give his master all the friction he could desire.  He didn’t even realize they were once again moving as they fucked till he reached forward and found himself grasping the stem of the chandelier.  How…. His mind went blank as his master lifted him up, Strahd standing on the ceiling while he pounded <em>up</em> into the tight ass presented to him.  Growling as he fucked his lover against the chandelier.</p><p>Varo’s back was against the cold gold of the chandelier while his arms went wide as did his wings trying to find some sort of perch from which to gain some measure of leverage.  The blanket slipping <em>up</em> his ass and back to rest in a long line from the chandelier down to the mild of the room.  Varro clenched around his master as the vampire began to grip the sheet and instead of pull it back <em>down</em> he pulled them <em>up</em> the silken material till they were dangling in the middle of the room against nothing but a hanging sheet.</p><p>At one point Varo’s body clenched and seized up as he began to rain cum <em>up</em> drenching his own chin and face as they made out, parting only to allow some of his release between their lips.  Only when Strahd had came again, a mighty roar of power rattling the room as he came, only to flutter down to the ground, pooling the blankets around them in an impossible cocoon of silk around them as they cuddled into one another.  Their bodies draped upon one another as they basked in the presence of one another.</p><p>“That…” Varo smiled.</p><p>“Exactly beloved.  Exactly.” He kissed him, licking the place where he’d already healed.</p><p>“How can I feel so tired but so powerful at the same time?” Varo couldn’t even bring himself to frown at this thought.</p><p>“It is the magic beloved… you will learn to ride it as you have learned to take me so well…” He gave a sexy smile and earned a blush from the nubile young man.</p><p>“Thank you master.” He held him, listening to the sounds of his blood making his master’s heart beat.  He wasn’t sure how long he slept curled up there.  It was still night when he opened his eyes, he was sure of that.  He glanced around noticing that his Master was still nude and still curled with him, but was talking in hushed tones with one of the servants who’d returned to the castle after their Master’s powers had been felt in the world.</p><p>He frowned, how did he know this shadow wasn’t one of the ones he’d seen before.  Something about the way the creature held itself spoke that it hadn’t been at the castle for a long time.  The ones who had inhabited this place while Strahd lay dormant had never given up the air of a good servant.  These… these had forgotten their place almost.  Maybe it was in the way they looked at their master.  But he could tell that they didn’t respect him or their duty, they feared him.  They feared his power.  And they feared what not returning would have meant for them.</p><p>That didn’t sit well with him.  They should love him, not fear him… but if they had to fear him they should still love him… Varo glared at the shadow that grabbed at itself and doubled over, his eyes boring holes in the creature till Strahd’s naked torso blocked his line of sight and he blushed.</p><p>“You have grown much this night little one.” He smiled at him.  “But we must not be cruel to those who serve us.  They do their tasks.  They can think and feel how they like so long as their tasks I need of them are done as I need them done.” He touched the shadow and healed it.  “Leave us.  You have your orders.”</p><p><em>Yes… master….</em>  The creature’s <em>eyes</em> flitted from Strahd to Varo before it slipped out of the room.  Varo kept an eye on the spot it left for a good long while.</p><p>“Beloved…” The tone was worried but Varo could feel the rebuke in the simple tone.</p><p>“Sorry master.” He hung his head, letting the fringe of his red mane hide his face and the shame he felt for being caught at it twice now.</p><p>“Beloved…” He put his fingers under Varo’s chin and raised his face to look at him before kissing his lips.  “There is no need to be jealous or petty.  You have my favor and my bed.”</p><p>“It’s not that master…”</p><p>“Then it’s their disdain for me?” Strahd nodded.</p><p>“Yes master.”</p><p>“Fear not beloved…” Strahd kissed him again, carding his fingers through the boy’s crimson locks.  “I have been gone long.  They have tasted freedom once too often.  It has poisoned them and changed them against their better natures.  But they’ll learn.”  He smiled.  “As for those who are rebellious now… they will come into the fold soon enough.  And those who don’t…” He cupped the boy’s cheek.  “Those I will give to you.”</p><p>“R-really?” He face flushed.</p><p>“Of course Beloved, who else would I trust with such a delicate task?” He smiled softly and they lay down, basking in the presence of one another till there was a knock at the door.  “Come in.” Strahd turned to the door and the shadow from before came in carrying a small box, when he was with in rage of the two of them he opened it to reveal a velvet lined interior with a rough crystal rod inside it.</p><p>“Take it.” Strahd’s eyes lit up.</p><p>“yes master.” Varo reached out and felt the sharp edge of the crystal prick his finger, and as a single drop of his blood connected with it the rod rippled, smoothing out, elegant swirls of color swirled inside etching itself inside and out with patterns that drew his eye along the edge of it.  He picked up the rod and felt the power thrumming inside it.  He looked to his master and gave him a questioning look.</p><p>“Think of a material and a size…” Strahd smiled.  Varo nodded and pointed the rod away from them.  A large throw pillow made of blood red silk with gold tassels landed on the floor near the wall.</p><p>“The Rod of Pillows.” Strahd leaned into his Beloved’s shoulder.  “And it’s time I teach you a very simple skill.”</p><p>“What’s that master?” Varo looked hungry again.</p><p>“I’m going to focus on what the rod does and how it works, I want you to extract that knowledge.”</p><p>“you…”</p><p>“I want you to learn to open up your feeding to include whatever is in the mind of your target.  If you’re careful and only lift a copy, you’re target will never know that you copied the information.  I’m not expecting that level of control this first time…” Strahd grinned.  “So I won’t be mad if you take more than you should…”</p><p>“How do I…” Varo blushed.</p><p>“You feed with any part of your flesh touching any part of mine.  While the connection is open you can choose to go after just the energy or to reach deeper into other parts of the person.  You’re aiming for active thoughts.”</p><p>“what if I hurt you?” He bit his lip, worry marring his features.</p><p>“You won’t.” He steadied his Beloved before relaxing and letting the boy find his own power.  Varo nodded and tried to relax, placing his hand on Strahd shoulder and moving in for a kiss.  The moment their lips touched, he felt the connection, the crimson swirling energy that was his blood, the tinge of his own magic inside Strahd.  And it called to him.  All that sexual energy bound inside one person, begging to be devoured.  But that wasn’t what he was here for, no… he… an image slid across his mind of the Rod of Pillows and his focus chased after it.  He was in a white space following a red thread of energy till he was looking at himself holding the Rod.</p><p>Memories began to spread out.  Where Strahd had came across the Rod, how he’d gathered it.  How he’d used it.  The knowledge of how to use the Rod and what the Rod’s limitations were, all of it was there.  He touched one memory and watched it suck into him.</p><p><em>So that’s extracting…</em>  He nodded to himself, mentally going to the next memory and thinking copy over and over in his mind, as he touched it, the memory seemed to come apart as two distinct images.  One the original was still in the same place but he was not holding a sort of etched glass copy of the memory.  As he <em>looked</em> at it, it turned into liquid and poured into him.  He had the memory and he’d managed not to remove it from his Master.</p><p>Smiling to himself he managed to copy most of the other memories, only damaging or taking one or two others.  But eventually he pulled out of the power and blushed as he looked at his Master.  “How’d I do?” Varo worried his lip.</p><p>“Not bad… I’m aware of a couple things.  But I planned a head.” He raised his other hand that he’d kept behind him this whole time and licked his own blood off of his nails.  His eyes closed before opening with a glowing power.  “Vampires are able to read the knowledge stored in blood.  It is how we do what you have done.  I stored a copy of my memories outside myself in my own blood just before you drank from me.” He smiled.  “That way I was not… damaged in the end.”</p><p>“You could have told me…” Varo pouted.</p><p>“I wanted the fear to temper you, coupled with your desire to impress me.” He smiled, kissing Varo again and pulling back to dismiss the shadow who paused at the door.</p><p>“As for the other matter, Master.  I have sent men to bring him here.”</p><p>“Who’s coming?” Varo looked at Strahd.</p><p>“Someone whom I much desire to speak with… and perhaps someone for you to hone your strengths on…” He smirked before kissing Varo again.  “Come, we have more of the bed to destroy first.”</p><p>“Yes Master.” Varo smiled, looking up the long nude line of his Master as he stood, and reached out a hand for him.  Varo took the hand as it was offered and stood up himself, following his Master to the bed that was in shambles.  He pouted slightly to himself at the ruin of it, but Strahd tore the canopy out of their way and laid down, smirking at his Beloved before blushingly he climbed up the bed, using one of the broken banisters as leverage to raise himself up on the bed and then to lower himself down on his master’s cock before he was fully seated.</p><p>“And this time…” Strahd smirked.</p><p>“Yes, master?” Varo blushed.</p><p>“Don’t hold back.” Strahd let his magic flare in his eyes.</p><p>“Never Master.” Varo bent down and kissed his master while clenching himself.  The memories about the Rod that he reached over and slipped into the bed side table, safely secured in his mind, he could think about how using it would improve his skills later, for now, he had a very aroused Vampire Lord under him who was making up for lost time.  Who knew that spending centuries in a box sleeping could leave one so ravenous for all the delights of the flesh?</p><p>How did he end up being the luckiest Incubus in the world?</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Trying to get some D&amp;D based ideas out of my head and into the world.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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